eCommerce Lifestyle Podcast Show Notes : The One Thing Holding You Back From 10x Business Growth

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Stagnant Business Growth is Everybody’s Problem

Hey, what’s up everybody? Anton here from eCommerce Lifestyle. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up, let you know that as of the time I’m recording this episode, the podcast is officially on all of the major podcast platforms and players. If you’ve been listening to this on eCommerceLifeStyle.com but you want to get it in iTunes, or on Overcast, or Pocket Casts, or whatever it is you use. Just go into your podcast player, and search for eCommerce Lifestyle, and you should be able to subscribe in there to get all of the new episodes direct to your phone or whatever podcast player you use. Pretty cool. I wanted to give you a heads up on that.

And then, I also wanted to talk to you about what this episode is actually about, which is kind of a summary of a conversation that I had with a friend who is a member of one of my online courses, and built his business based off what I teach, and was able to replace his income from his normal job, and basically live the same lifestyle while working a lot less, and while doing it through his own business.

Now, he’s been doing this for probably a few years now, running his online store. His online store, again, has provided for him, and for his family, and replaced his income, right? All is well. The reason we had a conversation though, or part of the reason, was to talk about kind of how his growth has been stagnant, and why he’s not hitting his goals for this year. If you’re part of any of my online courses, again, or communities. You probably know that we’re really big on goal setting. We set yearly goals for our businesses, we also set quarterly goals. At the time I’m recording this right now, we are just starting Q3 of 2018. He was feeling kind of lost. Again, his revenue isn’t growing. It’s not declining, but it’s not growing. It’s stagnant, and it has been pretty much for quarter one and quarter two of this year.

He wanted to have the conversation to basically talk about why. “Why am I not growing the way that I want to? I got to where I am right now, and I feel like I’m not getting any further.” Honestly, it’s something I see all the time happen with people, and it happens with me, and it probably happened with you, it may be happening to you right now. It’s very, very, very common that business owners, entrepreneurs, solo entrepreneurs, will start a business, will get to whatever they originally sought out to get to, or whatever level I would say makes them comfortable, right?

Again, for example he replaced his normal income from his normal nine to five. A lot of people will get to that, and then kind of putter out. Then what they’ll do at that stage is think, “Okay, I want to keep growing.” And they’ll think what got them to where they are, is also going to get them to the next level. They will try new things, like maybe new advertising platforms, maybe they’ll start a blog, maybe they’ll start a podcast, maybe they’ll do YouTube videos. Maybe they’ll be more active on social media, right? But they’ll just do these things … I don’t want to call them little things, ’cause everything I just mentioned could have a direct impact on your bottom line. But, they’re doing these things that are not going to have some massive impact.

For example, with my buddy that I was just telling you about. His goal for 2018 was to double the amount of revenue that he did in 2017. Again, if … It’s a sizeable amount of revenue. So, if you want to double a sizeable amount of revenue, normally, almost 100% of the time doing things like just starting a blog aren’t going to get you there. Of course there’s exceptions to the rule. If you get a blog that goes viral, if you have a … If it’s a celebrity blog, there’s all different exceptions.

But, for the most part, these little things like, “Yeah, I started my podcast. Why do I not have double my business? I made a YouTube channel, why isn’t this months sales twice as what it was last month.” Right? Again, those things are all important, they all help to build social proof, and to get your conversion rates up. But, they’re not going to double your business if you already have a big business. Especially, they’re not going to do it over night, okay?

Investing in Your Own Business is the Best Business Growth Strategy

So, what’s the one thing that I recommended to him and that I’ll recommend to you? And that, I’d recommend to anybody who kind of feels that they’re in the situation that they’ve built their business, it’s making them money, but no matter what they seem to be trying to grow, or do to grow, it’s not actually helping, okay? Well, it’s actually very simple. You might realize after I tell you this like, “Oh, Anton, I should have known that. It makes sense.” But, typically the reason people stall, right? The reason revenue stalls, or again, flat lines, is because people stop getting comfortable with spending more money into their business, and investing more money into their business, okay?

I’m going to say that again. For the majority of stores, right? When revenue flat lines, it’s because the business owner, the person in charge of spending money on the business, is no longer comfortable investing more money into that business growth.

Now, if you referred back to my last episode, and if you haven’t listened yet, go listen. It’s got great feedback. I’m talking about really the most important things to invest in to in your business, and they are people, so having a great team that you’re working with. Meaning employees, or contractors, or whatever it is. And, traffic. So spending more money on ads. If you think about it, when someone is going from, let’s just call it zero to one, meaning they don’t have a business yet and they’re getting to one. Which, we’ll call a business that sustains their lifestyle. They are spending money that they’re probably not comfortable with, right? They’re building a website, they are buying traffic, they’re probably paying different people to optimize their site. They’re investing into different costs.

Now, once they get there, they’re like, “Okay, cool. How much money should I spend on ads? Maybe I’ll experiment with $2,000 a month.” Right? Or, “$1,000 a month, or $5,000 a month.” Whatever. Then they spend that money on ads, they see what return it gets them, which is the smart thing to do, right? See how your ads perform, see what converts. Then they’ll cut the losers, and kind of keep the winners. And maybe gradually spend a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. But what happens is, if that … Again, we’ll call it $2,000 a month ad budget is where the business owner feels comfortable. Maybe within the next year they’ll get it up to like 3,000, 4,000, maybe 5,000 a month. And, that’s it, because they’re scared to spend more, right? Which again, makes sense.

But, if you really want to double your business growth. If you especially want to do something crazy like 10X your business, guess what? Your ad spend is going to go up disproportionately with the amount of revenue that you want. Let me explain it this way. Right now, if I could spend a dollar, right? A dollar to make $10 back. So, I spend a dollar, I get a $10 sale. If I wanted to do that at scale, that same dollar is no longer going to get me $10 back, because now my ads can’t be as targeted, right? I have to open up who I’m advertising to. Maybe my payback window is longer, ’cause it takes customers longer to buy, ’cause now I’m targeting people that aren’t as interested. So maybe that business that I had when I was spending, again, call it one or $2,000 a month that was getting me a 10 to one return on ad spend. Maybe now when I 10X my ad spend, I’m getting five dollars back for every dollar I spend, right? So it doesn’t look as good.

Return on Investment Decreases with Growth

For me, right? I’m assuming I’m putting myself in this persons shoes right now. I’m a newer business owner, not really comfortable spending a ton of money on ads, and every time I seem to scale my budgets, I notice I make less of a ROI. Less money back on my ad spend, so I think, “Oh, this isn’t working. Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do this. Maybe I should cut this off. Let me focus on what I know is just going to absolutely crush it and be the biggest home runs.”

Now, for a purely lifestyle business, right? One that you don’t want to worry about. I don’t want to say over spending, but one that you don’t want to put experimental money into your ad budget, one that you don’t want to take huge risks on, one that you don’t want to be the number one authority in your industry for. Then, that’s fine, right? Because this person that I’m talking to about now, and probably the majority of other eCommerce store owners. They’re fine making enough money to live off of, and make a six figure salary from their store. While again, not risking too much. They’re fine with that, which again is fine.

But, if you want to be number one in your industry, if you want to double your revenue year over year, if you want to 10X your revenue. It’s totally possible, but it’s not going to be from those small things like, again, I’m writing a blog post a week, or I have a podcast, or I made a YouTube channel. At least not instantly, right? Maybe it’ll pay off over the next few years. But, the things that are going to get you there right away, are aggressively spending more money on every advertising source that you’re using.

Now, with that being said, you know tracking is 100% key to any good ad campaign. That means doing it while you have Google analytics for eCommerce set up, you know it’s working, making sure your Facebook pixel is working exactly as it should. Monitoring your data on a consistent basis, and like I mentioned in the last podcast. You know what? Maybe that’s a good time, if you really are serious, right? About 10X’ing your business growth, and you’re going to just blow up your ad spend over the next year. That’s a good time to not only invest into that ad budget, but then to also bringing someone on your team in house that monitors your data and your analytics, that can give you reports, that can cut things when they really aren’t working. Not just when your return on investment is lower, but when you’re losing money. And, that could be one of your first crucial team members.

I did want to get that message across to everyone, because again, people think that ads aren’t working sometimes because they raise their budget, and they see that they’re making less than they did on their original ads. But again, it’s usually for a reason, right? It’s because you’re targeting a broader audience, because you’re maybe targeting people who aren’t as ready to buy. But, guess what? They still will buy, they still could be extremely profitable. But, that’s really where the biggest incremental gains in your business are going to come from. It’s by spending more on ads, and usually spending a lot more.

For that same person that may be is comfortable spending, let’s just say $5,000 a month on ads. Maybe that’s you listening right now. The real question to ask yourself is, “Can I, in my head, envision myself being comfortable spending 100,000 a month on ads?” It doesn’t mean you have to do it next month. But, in your head, get ready because if you want to be number one, there’s a good chance you are going to be spending six figures a month on ads. And, guess what? If you really want to just dominate an entire industry, there’s a good chance you’re going to be spending seven figures a month on ads.

Now, I’m not at that level yet, and that’s a mental block I have so I see where everyone’s coming from. But, try to prepare yourself, because if you really want to dominate your industry. Again, not just have a lifestyle business. You gotta be prepared to go all in, take big risks, and be everywhere. That is how you could double your income right away, that is how you could 10X your business this year. And, that is how you could lead your industry.

I don’t know guys. If you found value in that, let me know. Don’t go crazy and just 10X all your budgets right now, because there is a method to the madness. If you’re part of eCommerce Lifestyle, you know that. If you’re not, go to eCommerceLifeStyle.com, check out previous episodes. If you have any questions, definitely let me know. Just leave a comment below this video … This video, this podcast, on eCommerceLifeStyle.com. And, more than happy to tackle any questions there, or address them in future episodes.

That’s kind of how my conversation with my buddy went. Let him know that, “Listen, if you’re going to do this and you really want to be … You really want to double this year, guess what? Ad budgets are going up, and not five percent every month.” Hope you guys found value in that, hope you got some takeaways. Honestly, hope that you put it into action, and grow your business as well. It’s been good talking to everybody, keep me posted on your feedback. By the way, if you haven’t let a review for this podcast yet, please do. It definitely helps, as I’m realizing. So you could just go to iTunes, search for eCommerce Lifestyle. Please do, leave it five stars if you like it, and drop a review in there, all right? Thanks everybody, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.

What are you doing to 10x your business growth?? Let me know in the comments below!